ARCHIVED - Murcia Today Weekly Bulletin 24th October

The end of this week is certainly proving to be eventful as the covid pandemic gathers pace across Europe and Spain once again finds itself on the precipice of a declaration of a state of emergency.

It's just been confirmed this Saturday morning that an extraordinary session of the cabinet has been convened for Sunday morning specifically to discuss the topic of declaring a second state of emergency for Spain.

What this will mean to all of us is not clear at this moment, but the information will be written up and published on Murcia Today immediately after the press conference tomorrow morning. It may be that the Prime Minister opts to only impose the state of emergency in the regions which have specifically requested this mechanism or he may opt to apply the SOE across every region, which is most likely. He has repeatedly reiterated his opposition to applying lockdowns again, and stated that the SOE will give the regions the legal controls they require in order to be able to implement stricter measures themselves without contravening the Spanish Constitution. It seems most likely that he will establish basic measures which must be adhered to nationwide, which may include a nationwide curfew, and that he will base the SOE around a pre-determined set of tiered restrictions which will be applied depending on the situation in each municipal area, very much along the lines of what is occurring in the UK at the moment.

On Thursday the regional governments agreed a tiered structure by which restrictions can be implemented by themselves regionally, and this is likely to form the basis of any such measures.

Much of the content written earlier in the week leads up to this one event, so the bulletin has been restructured this morning to include the last article written last night which pulls together and explains a lot of what has happened this week.

Background to the state of emergency and curfew:

The Spanish Constitution is designed to protect the rights of residents of the country and one of its principal fundamental aims is to protect liberty and freedom of movement, so should a regional Government wish to impose perimeter confinements, prevent its residents from leaving their homes or towns, enforce a quarantine order or impose a curfew, the Spanish Constitution prevents them from doing so without either the national Government ordering a state of emergency or a court granting a special exemption.

In the early months of the pandemic the national state of emergency was the mechanism used by the Government to control the lockdowns, which took away the power from the regional governments, although every step of the way the Prime Minister worked with the regional governments to ensure that the powers were not abused and each extension of the SOE was undertaken with the express agreement of the regional presidents.

However, the country is run by politicians from a wide variety of parties which lean left, right, to the centre and even want to leave Spain altogether, so gaining consensus became increasingly difficult as the weeks wore by and the regional governments became impatient to resume control of their regions, finally regaining total control themselves when the state of emergency ended.

So, throughout the summer, the regional governments have resorted to the use of a judicial mechanism to try and implement their desired measures, rejecting the offer of the Prime Minister to implement a localised state of emergency should a region require one.

There has been fierce arguing about the mechanisms available, as some regions have been calling for the Government to prepare new legislation enabling them to impose the measures they require without the state of emergency or the courts, but the PM has resisted these attempts, maintaining always that the SOE is already in place and gives the regions all the tools they need legally; they just have to ask for it.

The judicial mechanism has worked well in many cases, but in others has caused significant difficulties; this week for example, the Basque Country Government has been attempting to impose perimeter movement restrictions on several areas of high covid incidence and the courts turned them down, stating that this breaches the fundamental rights of citizens. Catalonia hit the same problem when it was trying to close nightclubs, as did Madrid when it was trying to enforce a ban on smoking in public places and restaurants; just a couple of examples of many judicial disagreements which have made managing the pandemic complicated this summer.

Now many regions wish to impose a curfew along the lines of the curfews being imposed in other European countries such as France, but preliminary discussions with their respective regional judiciary have highlighted the potential legal minefield such a course of action could entail.

If a regional government was to accept a declaration of a state of emergency in their region they could implement the measures without any difficulty, but up until today the autonomous governments have been reluctant to accept the offer of the Prime Minister to call a state of emergency in an individual region due to the perceived political implications of this situation and a fear of losing control in ther own regions.

On Thursday the Interterritorial Commission (made up of representatives from each region) rejected a proposal made by the Ministry of Health for a blanket curfew or state of emergency in spite of the huge rise in cases this week and obvious need for drastic action amidst a scenario of uncontrolled transmission.

On Friday the PM put out an address to the nation in which he stated clearly that Spain and all of Europe have the obligation to apply new measures or toughen existing ones to stop the transmission of the coronavirus.

He recalled that the official number of infected has risen to one million this week and that seroprevalence studies carried out indicate that the real number of people who have been infected in Spain exceeds three million.

In addition, he said, the number of cases reported in 24 hours has doubled compared to the worst day of the first wave. He reminded the public that the onset of the cold weather and incidence of seasonal respiratory diseases such as the flu make up a favorable context to spread the epidemic and re-stress the health system and emphasised that neither the Government, the autonomous communities nor the municipalities have any interest in imposing more limitations than those necessary to prevent the spread of the pandemic: "We want and must avoid resorting to a new home confinement at all costs. like the one we lived with for weeks in the spring. "

Within an hour, the Basque Country had requested the declaration of a regional state of emergency. Their request was followed by letters from Asturias, Extremadura, la Rioja, Catalonia, Navarra and Cantabria. Castilla La Mancha confirmed that it would also request a state of emergency on Saturday and the Comunidad Valenciana also added its request on Saturday.

However, other regions are standing by their opinion that any state of emergency declared or measures imposed must be done at a national level; Murcia is amongst those making this stance. During the day Murcia, Andalusia, Madrid, Aragón and Castilla y León instigated judicial examinations of the legal implications of a curfew, the President of Castilla La Mancha declaring that,” This situation requires a national mould. The ship needs a captain and although the autonomous communities can manage the state of alarm there cannot be 17 states of alarm. Spain cannot be a puzzle.”

On Saturday the Prime Minister will be in Rome as he has an audience with the Pope and is then flying straight to the Conference of Presidents in Brussels on Sunday.

Ciudadanos has already offered its support for a state of emergency and although theoretically the government has enough votes already to move the measure forward, the PM would prefer to have the support of the PP, as should an extension be required in 15 days time, agreement from the PP will be required. However, the Spanish cabinet alone can decide to impose an SOE should it wish to do so, with or without, the support of the PP.

Agreement to impose a state of emergency does not automatically imply that any lockdowns such as those experienced in the spring will follow as there is a general acceptance that this second wave is very different from the first, not least of all because we have a better understanding of the virus, we have drugs which can treat it, our hospitals are better prepared and staff better trained and the public is more aware of how the virus is spread, but there is agreement that our regional governments need to have the legal powers they require in order to impose the measures legally which can limit the spread of the virus.

This will now all be resolved at the cabinet meeting called for Sunday.

On Wednesday Spain passed the psychological one million cases mark, just 265 days after the first case was diagnosed in the country on the Canary Island of La Gomera.

Spain has thus become only the sixth nation to reach the one million mark and the first in Europe, the others being; United States with 8.1 million infections and 218,641 deaths, India with 7.6 million infected people (115,914 deaths), Brazil with 1.4 million infected and 154,176 deaths, Russia with 1.4 million and 24,635 deaths, and Argentina, 1,002,662 infected and 26,716 deaths. On Friday France joined the list of "million casers" and imposed a strict curfew across two thirds of the population. This weekend its government is debating the application of further measures after reporting its highest case numbers ever this week.

Covid cases in Spain:

This Friday the Ministry notified 19,851 new cases, bringing the overall total up to 1,046,132 and the total cases detected this week to 109,572.

The Ministry also notified 231 deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the total this week up to 977 and the total to date to 34,752.

Cases are increasing nationwide at a significant rate and the week has concluded with an accumulated incidence rate of 361.66 per 100,000, having increased from 280.44 a week ago.

As has been the case right throughout the pandemic there is significant regional variation;
Navarra heads up the list of regions with a whopping 1062 cases per 100,000 of population, followed by Melilla with 917.74; Aragón, 682.18; La Rioja, 630.37; Castilla y León 562.11; Catalonia 447.73; Ceuta 444.71; Basque Country 430.34; Madrid 421.62; Castilla la Mancha 385.22; Murcia 379.41; Extremadura 352.44; Andalucía 327.17; Asturias 300.84; Cantabria 225.10; Galicia 192.11; Valencia Region 153.16; Balearic Islands 150.68; Canary Islands 81.41.

Pressure on hospital system:
As of today there are 14,539 patients in hospital wards with severe cases of covid across Spain, 379 more than on Thursday and 2,031 in intensive care, a rise of 65 since yesterday.

The bed occupancy levels have been stealthily rising all week; on Monday 10.4% of all available beds were occupied, the figure exceeding the 10% threshold for the first time, but by Friday this figure had risen to 12.11%.

The national average for ICU beds on Friday is 22.48%. In Melilla 66% of ICU beds are occupied by covid patients; in Aragón the figure is 42.56%, in Ceuta 47%, Castilla y León 35%, Madrid 38% and Navarra 32%.

Breach of restrictions:

In spite of the soaring number of new cases, deaths and hospitalisations, members of the public are continuing to ignore the restrictions put in place to protect them and their families and there has been a steady stream of news articles from across the country highlighting the continued problems faced by the authorities in enforcing the regulations.

Mazarron police issued 21 denuncias for illegal drinking gatherings on Saturday evening: Click to read

Mula police break up meal attended by more than 40 people; Bolivians who had voted in their elections in Murcia city drove out to Mula to eat together, with attendees from several municipalities including Totana which was locked down at the time! Click to read

And there have been dozens more such reports across Spain all week relating to parties, private gatherings, fiestas, weddings and groups of young people holding botellon drinking sessions in the streets. The health authorities continue to warn us that around 50% of all new cases are directly related to attendance at a social event or family event but the public continue to disregard the warnings and the restrictions.

56,000 Spanish flags in Murcia city to highlight Covid dead in Spain. This appears under this heading as the event was sabotaged by far-left supporters who ripped all the flags out and threw them away.

ANVAC, The National Association of Victims and People Affected by Coronavirus planted 56,000 Spanish flags in one of the principal arterial avenues of Murcia City on Sunday in a symbolic tribute to those who have died from coronavirus in Spain so far, 56,000 to date.

Similair actions have been carried out in the Roma park in Madrid; the Patacona beach, in Valencia; and the Alamillo park, in Seville so far.Close to the headquarters of the Guardia Civíl, they placed a larger Spanish flag on the ground under a large white ribbon reading: "Justice for the victims of coronavirus."

The association has been set up to help those who have died from the virus and their families, as well as those suffering from the issues of “long covid” which is starting to receive increasingly wide media attention, with victims of the virus left suffering from fatigue and associated symptoms for significant periods after contracting the virus.

The group has also attracted significant support from right-wing political parties critical of the national Government handling of the crisis (principally VOX), so although the original aims of the association may have been victim support, the flag planting protests are becoming increasingly politicised. In Valencia, left-wing protestors from the Frente Obrero ripped all the flags out and threw them away before the symbolic manifesto could be read out at mid-day: as the video below shows, the Frente Obrero also intervened in Murcia, binning the flags:

Una vez más el #FrenteObrero, esta vez en Murcia, contra los vendepatrias de Vox que convierten la muerte de trabajadores españoles en una parte más de su circo político contra el gobierno. https://t.co/dNBWX0Rfo1 pic.twitter.com/9zI8lcFCPf

— Frente Obrero España (@frenteobreroesp) October 18, 2020

The Universities system in Spain is also struggling to contain the spread of covid, and Valencia University has been one of the most publicised cases of this nature in Spain.Fines of between 601 and 30,000 euros are being proposed for many of those involved in a rooftop party and two other associated parties which were held in late September at the Galileo Galilei college in Valencia, an event which led to at least 168 people becoming infected with Covid-19.

Gabriela Bravo, the minister for Justice in the Valencia regional government, explained on Tuesday that the 50 or so people facing charges related to a “serious violation” of anti-Covid rules include not only the party organizers and students identified by the forces of law and order at the time, but also management and staff at the college, as they are accused of being responsible for the “total lack of control” and the lack of steps taken to prevent the party from taking place or to break it up. In addition, charges are levelled at the college itself, which is a residential complex located between Valencia’s main university and the polytechnic university.

All of this is why the regional governments are requesting the state of emergency as currently they lack the power to enforce the curfews and measures they want to apply.

Lockdowns:

On Tuesday Navarra became the first region of Spain to voluntarily impose a lockdown since the state of emergency ended in June, closing off its regional borders and imposing a lockdown on all bars and restaurants for two weeks. The region has the highest accumulated incidence rate in Spain, which on Monday was three times the average level of the rest of the country.Click to read

On Wednesday the Region of La Rioja followed its lead, announcing a 15 day perimeter confinement of the region and a series of restrictions affecting the retail sector, hostelry and gatherings. Only those with justifiable reasons will be permitted to enter or leave the region. Click to read

 Galicia bans gatherings of over 5 people from Thursday: Click to read

Aragón confines Zaragoza, Huesca and Teruel from Thursday.On Monday the region enters level 3. Click to read

Madrid closes bars and restricts gatherings between midnight and 06:00; This Saturday at 4:47 p.m. the state of alarm decreed by the central government two weeks ago comes to an end in the region of Madrid and the regional government has decided to again implement measures aimed at restricting mobility and capacity in 32 basic health areas where the incidence of the virus is higher, in almost exactly the same format as before the imposition of the state of emergency.

Regional Minister of Health, Enrique Ruiz Escudero, has announced that gatherings are limited between twelve at night to six in the morning only to "cohabitants", which in practice is a kind of curfew, although the government refuses to specifically call it that; "Between midnight and six in the morning, family or social gatherings are limited, both in public and private spaces, restricted only to cohabitants," said Escudero. "During the rest of the hours of the day, a maximum gathering of six people is permitted, unless they are living together."

Madrid is extending the closing time of bars and restaurants until 00:00 – up until now it was 23:00 - in those areas that are not affected by the limitations of the basic zones of health in which they will have to close an hour before at 23:00.Clients may not be permitted past 11pm in any instance, all establishments must be closed between midnight and 06:00 and all other businesses must close at 22:00. Click to read full article

Balearic Islands prohibit consumption at the bar in Mallorca and Ibiza and introduce wider measures to try and stop the spread of covid. Click to read

Castilla y León applies 14 day curfew from Saturday onwards. Click to read

Andalusia orders the perimeter closure of Granada and its metropolitan area from Monday. Click to read

Valencia declares a curfew encompassing Alicante Province as well as Castellón and Valencia: Click to read

Other aspects of Covid:

Longest-serving ICU covid patient in Spain dies a month after leaving hospital.Ángel Mateos spent 172 days in intensive care with covid but has died a month later.

He was hailed as a great fighter, his departure from intensive care after 172 days of severe illness a testimony to the capacity of humans to overcome covid and the tireless dedication of nursing staff to saving lives, but a month after leaving ICU, Ángel Mateos, the patient who had become the patient holding the record for the longest time spent in an ICU unit due to the coronavirus in Spain, has died.

Ángel had himself worked in the Igualada Hospital (Barcelona) as an auxiliary for more than 20 years, and was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the hospital between March 16th and September 3rd, a total of 172 days.

The hospital itself reported on social media that he died this Wednesday, "More than an Angel, he was like a phoenix that resurfaced over and over again after all the complications” the head of the anesthesiology and intensive medicine department, Santi Abreu said in a tweet.

During his stay in the ICU, the health worker, who was admitted on Monday, March 16th at dawn with severe secondary respiratory failure that later led to bilateral pneumonia, presented multiple and very serious complications (coagulopathies, kidney failure requiring hemodialysis and sepsis due to respiratory and abdominal infection, amongst others), faced death many times, but he kept fighting, and knew he faced a long road to recovery, because the stay in the ICU had caused significant muscle wastage.

Doctors said at the time that he faced a long journey to recovery to re-educate his body and recover his strength with the daily and intense physical work that he had to carry out at the Guttmann Institute, where he was transferred when he left the Igualada Hospital.

Had he died in the the UK, his death would not have been included as a Covid statistic, falling outside of the designated period within which patients are diagnosed before their death is included in official statistics and his situation will ring true for tens of thousands of people around the world left severely debilitated by covid and still facing many months of pain and suffering as they attempt to recover from the virus.

Long covid is now being recognised for its debilitating long-term effects, and there is still a significant amount to be learned about the virus and its behaviour (and effects) as scientists make daily discoveries, with the weeks rolling by.

Catalan hospital prohibits visitors and those accompanying patients.No companions will be allowed to accompany patients attending appointments. Click to read

The same measure was applied in Castilla y León on Saturday.Click to read

Granada municipality bans Halloween parties and Trick n Treating due to Covid.This situation is likely to be repeated all over Spain next weekend due to the celebration of All Saints and All Souls. Fortunately this year the main holiday of 1st November falls on Sunday, so there isn´t a generalised Bank Holiday, but the authorities are still concerned about the potential gatherings related to this event.  Click to read

Normally All Saints and All Souls is a significant family celebration across Spain, as families gather in cemeteries to honour their dead, and the younger generation indulge in the more commercial aspects of the Halloween festivities which are now widely celebrated around the world.

But this year there are naturally concerns that this family fiesta will bring together crowds of people and encourage the spread of covid, so measures are being announced by some councils to try and prevent this occurring.

Cemeteries are being signposted to indicate flow routes, plans prepared to limit the number of entries and limit capacity at any given time, and publicity campaigns published to dissuade members of the family from attending en-masse, but the authorities are generally more concerned about the private family gatherings that normally take place and the activities undertaken by younger people.

The case of Salobreña (Granada) is typical of other notifications already being issued as councils decide against taking any risk and issue an outright ban on Halloween parties and Trick n treating door to door.

 

Economy:

Coronavirus causes 6th consecutive fall in Spanish exports. The economic slump brought about by the coronavirus pandemic continued in respect of exports during the month of August, when a 9.1 per cent year-on-year drop represented the sixth consecutive fall since the first lockdown was imposed in March.

Export sales reached a total of 17,664 million euros during August and while imports fell even more sharply – by 17.2 per cent to 19,400 million euros – the balance of trading was still a deficit of 1,736 million euros. This figure is over 50 per cent lower than in August 2019. Click to read full article

Zara to close in Cartagena.

As the retail sector continues to feel the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, particularly in terms of store sales as opposed to online shopping, the clothes and fashion chain Zara has announced that it is to close its outlet on Calle Mayor in the centre of Cartagena.

The shutters at the store will go down for the final time on 30th November after 30 years of trading in the pedestrian city centre, during which time it has become one of the most popular stop-off points for shoppers in Cartagena.

Although the Covid pandemic is the obvious cause for the closures in Cartagena and elsewhere, in one sense the virus has simply accelerated a change in shopping habits which was already well under way as more and more people opt to make their purchases online, and Zara explain that the intention is to focus on strengthening this latter sales option. At present 14 per cent of Inditex sales are made online, a figure which the group president Pablo Isla believes can be raised to 25 per cent in the short term as smaller stores close and more efforts are made to attract internet purchasers.

Mercadona drastically reduces the price of face masks. Supermarket wars reduce the price of disposable masks as millions are consumed every week; an environmental disaster which will remind us of covid a long time after the pandemic has ended: Click to read

Covid Murcia

On Friday 16th October the Murcia Region had 27,381 cases. On Friday 23rd October the reported figure was 31,378, so this is a rise in the total number of cases of 3,997 in 7 days.

Patients are recovering all the time and being removed from the number of active cases, so by the end of the week, the region had 9,670 active cases and 19, 721 recoveries to date.

Hospitalisations:
The number of patients hospitalised at the end of the week is 418, a record high, and has risen from 374 at the end of last week. There are 77 patients in intensive care, just 5 more than at the beginning of the week.

Fatalities

These have risen from 255 to 281 this week, so there have been 26 deaths this week.

Accumulated incidence rate:
The rate per 100,000 of population has increased to 286 across the Murcia Region for 7 days and 502 for 14 days. The worst affected municipality is Villanueva del Río Segura with a rate of 1855 (although it only has 2910 inhabitants), followed by Beniel with 645, Fortuna with 583 and Totana with 565. There are 18 municipalities with IA rates exceeding the regional average. The most worrying figures are those of Murcia city due to the sheer size of the population, which is nearly half a million. The capital now has an IA rate of 304 over 7 days and 510 over 14.

Number of new cases in the last 7 days:
By municipality on Wednesday: Note, the first figure shown is the actual number of cases diagnosed in the last 7 days, the second is the IA rate for the last 7 days (number of cases per 100,000 of population): In brackets the number of cases is indicated as either a positive or negative compared to the situation last Wednesday when this breakdown was last published, taking into consideration that patients are recovering and being removed from the list all the time)

Abanilla 17/277 (-13) ( This means 17 cases in the last 7 days and an IA rate of 277, so just below average, with 13 less cases since the last figures were published on Wednesday)
Abarán 22/169 (-9)
Águilas 69/195 (-7)
Albudeite 0
Alcantarilla 107/254 (+10)
Aledo 1/97 (-1)
Los Alcázares 35/216 (+8)
Alguazas 31/321 (+1)
Alhama de Murcia 54/244 (-1)
Archena 66/342(-2)
Beniel 73/645 (25)
Blanca 4/61 (+2)
Bullas 47/407 (+10)
Calasparra 7/68 (-2)
Campos del Río 7/345 (0)
Caravaca de la Cruz 67/260 (-1)
Cartagena 444/206 (+16)
Cehegín 34/226 (+8)
Ceutí 43/364 (-8)
Cieza 165/471 (+21)
Fortuna 59/583 (-20)
Fuente Álamo 67/404(+5)
Jumilla 73/285 (+20)
Librilla 10/188 (0)
Lorca 225/238 (+12)
Lorquí 31/434 (+5)
Mazarrón 47/145(+12)
Molina de Segura 208/289 (-26)
Moratalla 15/191 (+3)
Mula 54/319 (+6)
Murcia 1379/304 (+327)
Ojós 1/200 (-1)
Pliego 19/493 (+4)
Puerto Lumbreras 21/136 (+8)
Ricote 3/237 (+2)
San Javier 82/252 (-5)
San Pedro del Pinatar 40/157 (+14)
Santomera 48/296 (-6)
Torre Pacheco 121/339 (+26)
Las Torres de Cotillas 61/285 (+6)
Totana 181/565 (+1)
Ulea 1/114(-1)
La Unión 42/207 (+11)
Villanueva del Río Segura 54/1855 (+46)
Yecla 59/171 (+3)
Those from other regions diagnosed in Murcia 77
Total 4276 . Acumulated IA rate in the last 7 days: 286

On Tuesday the perimeter confinement of Lorca and Jumilla was discontinued as both areas have reduced the number of cases significantly, although this has taken over a month in the case of Lorca.

However, although movement across the borders is now permitted, some restrictions on the capacity in bars and restaurants and opening hours of retail businesses will continue for a further week as case numbers are deemed too high to allow a full return to normality.

Totana, Fortuna and Abanilla will remain in flexibilised phase 1 confinement for a further week, although schoolchildren will be permitted to return to school from Thursday. For pupils in Totana this will be the start of their school year as classes to date have all been online.

At the beginning of the week there was significant concern about the rising number of hospitalisations, as the number of patients hospitalised had reached 393, the highest figure yet recorded in the region since the start of the pandemic, and the 77 in intensive care was just one bed short of the record level of 78. Last week infections increased by 23% and the accumulated incidence rate had risen by 37 points to 235 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.By Friday the rate had risen to 286. Although it would be nice to be able to give positive news, we have to be realistic and although this figure is lower than the national average is still more than 10 times higher than the level considered to be manageable, and acceptable, by WHO.

More respirators make Murcia health service better able to fight against Covid:

Regional health services all over Spain have been forced by the coronavirus pandemic into rapidly increasing the amount of equipment available for treating patients diagnosed with the condition, and in the Region of Murcia the hospitals of the SMS hospital are now equipped with a total of 892 respirator machines, well over double the figure at the beginning of the year.

Eight months ago, when the first cases of coronavirus were reported in this country, respirators (along with facemasks and other items of protective clothing) suddenly became the most sought-after items in health services throughout the world as medics struggled to save those patients whose condition became life-threatening. But as the expected second wave reaches the Region of Murcia the SMS public health authority is now far better prepared than in the spring, with the number of machines available having been raised by 134 per cent from 381 to 892.

Other news Murcia:

Spraying against the processionary caterpillar begins early in north-west Murcia this year.

Spraying against the processionary caterpillar has begun early in the north-west of the Murcia Region this year, the unusually warm autumn weather likely to bring increased populations of the dangerous processionary caterpillar in the spring.

The north-west is particularly prone to this caterpillar as it has so many pine trees, although their silky nests are found in every corner of not only Murcia, but right along the Mediterranean coast.

Various techniques are used to try and control the pest including injecting the trees, and using helicopters to spray, but most councils will undertake localised spraying several times during the winter months in an effort to reduce the number of processionaries in their areas.

The pine processionary (Thaumetopoea pityocampa) is so called because members of the species in the caterpillar phase of their life cycle, before they metamorphose into moths, form nose-to-tail processions as they leave their soft cocoon nest of spun filaments, and is widespread throughout the warmer Mediterranean areas of Spain and other parts of Europe.

The favoured nesting grounds of processionary caterpillars are higher up in pine trees, where the nests are closer to the winter sun, and it is normally in late winter and early spring that the caterpillars drop from the cocoon nests and form "processions" in search of soft, warm earth in which to pupate. There can be hundreds of caterpillars nose to tail, winding along roadways or rough ground, and although they may appear innocuous they can be lethal to animals and cause serious reactions in humans, especially young children. Click to read the full article which gives information about how to get rid of processionaries and why they are so dangerous to animals.

Fire at Torre Pacheco recycling plant: Click to read

Youths steal Go-Karts from karting track and are reported by members of the public driving through the streets of Murcia City; Click to read

Murcia Region marks breast cancer day; the region offers free mammograms to women over 50: Click to read

In the Murcia region one of the principal actions to limit breast cancer is the programme to carry out mammograms on women aged over 50 and every woman registered with the regional health authority is called in for a breast scan every 2 years, an easy, painless process that takes just a couple of minutes.

The regional health authority began its own breast cancer prevention programme in 1994, and now nearly 90 percent of breast cancer diagnoses in the region are successfully treated. Each year the region carries out an average of 50,000 scans per year, and 20,000 revisions, detecting around 700 cases a year through this process.

Seven hospitals in the Region have state-of-the-art mammography machines that allow obtaining images with better definition and minimizing the rate of radiation on patients,
technology purchased with an investment of 1.8 million euros, due to the collaboration of the Amancio Ortega Foundation.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October
Breast Cancer Awareness Month, marked in countries across the world every October, helps to increase attention and support for the awareness, early detection and treatment as well as palliative care of this disease.

There are about 1.38 million new cases and 458 000 deaths from breast cancer each year (IARC Globocan, 2008). Breast cancer is by far the most common cancer in women worldwide, both in the developed and developing countries.

Águilas begins work on final stretch of Calabardina cycle lane. Click to read

Los Alcázares launches covid awareness campaign on street crossings. Click to read.

Mazarrón maths teacher killed in motorcycle accident on his way to work: Click to read

New naval submarine history display opens at the Museo Naval in Cartagena.The Isaac Peral room traces the history of Spanish military submarines and submariners: Click to read

Vandals at the Castillo de los Moros in Cartagena cause entrances to be bricked up.The Castillo de los Moros was first used during the War Of the Spanish Succession in the early 18th century, when it was occupied by James FitzJames, the 1st Duke of Berwick, to combat the forces occupying the Castillo de la Concepción. It has been owned by the Town Hall of Cartagena since 1929 but for many years was not been put to any use, and its condition has gradually deteriorated over the years, along with many of the other unused fortresses along the coast. Click to read

Driver who overturned 40 ton lorry in Yecla found to be six times over the limit:Click to read

Other news Spain

Lidl supermarkets across Spain withdraw goat cheese due to listeria risk. The batch of 100-gram “Jermi” cheese packages concerned is Number 412, with a use-by date of 6th November 2020, and was distributed to supermarkets in the regions of Andalucía, Catalunya, the Basque Country, Galicia, Madrid, Murcia and the Comunidad Valenciana, according to the AESAN Spanish Food and Nutritional Safety Agency. Click for full information

Bankia-CaixaBank merger to take effect early in 2021.Gonzalo Gortázar, the managing director of CaixaBank, announced on Monday that the merger of the bank with the Valencia-based Bankia will take effect during the first quarter of 2021.

Prior to the merger going ahead the audit and consultancy firm BDO is to deliver its report on the operation this week and then the relevant shareholders’ meetings have to be called and held, and Sr Gortázar explained that teams from both banks are currently working on the outstanding details related to legal issues and to the procedure of integrating the two companies’ systems. This integration will be completed in the final quarter of next year and is a complex operation which requires a good deal of preparation, but he added that both CaixaBank and Bankia are fortunate enough to have been involved in similar operations in the past.

In real terms, what this means is that account holders with the two banks will not notice the effects of the merger until the end of 2021, again according to Sr Gortázar, who reiterated that the upshot of the merger will be increased efficiency and improvement in the level of personal banking offered to customers. Click to read full article

DON´T FORGET TO CHANGE YOUR CLOCKS TONIGHT!

Summertime officially comes to an end at 3.00 in the morning on Sunday 25th October, when the clocks will go back an hour and it will be 2.00 again (or from 2.00 to 1.00 in the Canaries). In theory this means that Spaniards will gain an extra hour of sleep on Saturday night (unless they have young children…), but on the downside the hours of daylight will abruptly end much earlier and the sun will begin to set at approximately 18.00.

This putting back of the clocks takes place in compliance with the relevant EC Directive, but in theory the situation could still change in 2021 in line with a proposal made in 2018. This required each member state to decide its own policy with a view to eliminating the annual putting back and forward the clocks and deciding once and for all to which time zone it wished to belong.

In Spain the government at the time created a committee to evaluate the possibilities, with three gaining support from different lobbying groups: remaining on CET, remaining permanently on summertime, or even reverting to GMT. This latter proposal would for large parts of the country be the most appropriate geographically, as the Greenwich Meridian runs through the north-east of the country and the province of Alicante.

The National Committee for the Rationalization of Spanish Timetables is a fervent supporter of remaining on CET – the winter time which will be re-adopted on Sunday morning – on the grounds that it “favours productivity and performance”. However, there is considerable disagreement in the tourism sector, where the long summer evenings are held to be an important element in attracting visitors to the Costas.

So this may be the last time this occurs; we'll have to wait until the decision is finally announced post-covid!

Tourism

Ryanair announces four new domestic routes within Spain.This announcement comes just days after the airline slashed international flights, including many to Spain, angering passengers trying to get home for Christmas.

Low-cost airline Ryanair announced on Tuesday that it will operate four new domestic routes in Spain as of December 1st, 2020, after having recorded "a record increase in demand from Spanish consumers”. The new routes are between Alicante and Vitoria, with twice weekly frequencies; Barcelona and Lanzarote (four weekly frequencies); Malaga and Valencia (three frequencies) and Palma-Jerez (two frequencies.

September passenger numbers down by 80 per cent at Spanish airports: 90 per cent fewer international travellers as the second wave of Covid hits air travel

The collapse of the air travel sector and international tourism due to the coronavirus pandemic is amply illustrated by the latest figures to be published by Aena, which runs almost all of Spain’s airports, with a total of just 5.46 million passengers reported to have passed through terminal buildings in this country during the month of September.

This represents a calamitous fall of 79.9 per cent in comparison with September 2019, despite the number of flights having dropped less drastically by 50.9 per cent during the month, and the discrepancy may reflect the unwillingness of potential passengers to travel on the flights which have not been removed from schedules only to shut themselves away in quarantine on arrival at their destination.

Quite possibly it is for this reason that the number of people arriving in Spain or leaving on international flights fell even more sharply than the overall total, by 89.8 per cent, while the figure for those using domestic flights was “only” 56 per cent down from September last year.

It goes without saying that none of the major airports in Spain has been exempt from the loss of traffic, and while in September Madrid-Barajas was once again the busiest with just under a million passengers this represents a drop of 82.3 per cent. The main airports serving the Costas continued to illustrate the disastrous effect of the pandemic on the tourist industry, with the falls reported including those of 83.5 per cent at Barcelona-El Prat, 86.4 per cent at Palma de Mallorca, 81.9 per cent at Málaga-Costa del Sol, 70 per cent at Gran Canaria and 76 per cent at Ibiza.

The airport of Alicante-Elche registered 256,993 passengers during September (a fall of 83.4 per cent which contributes to a drop of 72.4 per cent in the first nine months of the year), while the nearby Region of Murcia International Airport in Corvera was used by only 17,164 passengers, 86.9 per cent fewer than in September 2019. The cumulative total at Corvera airport for 2020 now stands at 202,667, having dropped to just 22.4 per cent of the level reached by the same point last year, and with the second wave of the pandemic having spread still further since the end of September it appears that no recovery is likely during the remainder of the year.

  IAG airlines group reports 83 per cent drop in third quarter turnover. The IAG Holding group, which operates the airlines Iberia, Vueling, IAG and Aer Lingus, has announced a loss during the third quarter of 2020 of 1,300 million euros, in sharp contrast to the profit of 1,425 million euros in the equivalent period last year.

This disastrous result is attributable directly to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, which has brought about such reductions in flights and passenger numbers that the group’s turnover fell by a dramatic 83 per cent.

IAG’s passenger capacity was cut during the third quarter by 78.6 per cent as drastic adjustments were made to flight schedules, while the actual passenger traffic (measured in passenger numbers and kilometres travelled) fell by 88 per cent. Needless to say, the same situation is also affecting many other airlines worldwide and the performance of airports; the traffic in Spanish airport was down 80% overall in September, and 90% on international flights to Spain during September.

However, there was some excellent news for tourism on Thursday afternoon when both the UK and Germany announced that a safe tourism corridor had been agreed with the Canary islands and travel restrictions would be lifted by both countries. This effectively means that holidays can resume without the need to quarantione on return to either Germany or the UK, giving a welcome injection of tourism revenue to the Canary islands. Click to read more

Jet 2 rapidly announced the resumption of flights and holidays on Thursday and by the weekend both Ryanair and Easyjet had launched additional flights and packages to Canary Island destinations.

Unfortunately, tourism in general continues to suffer across Spain, the increased number of covid cases limiting interest in international travel to such an extent that the tourism sector has now raised its estimation of projected losses for this year to 106 billion euros. The main body representing the sector, Exeltur, is now projecting job losses of 750,000 by the end of next year, due to the Covid pandemic.Click to read the whole article

Here in Murcia this is so clearly visible in empty urbanisations along the coast and businesses reporting low turnover; one example this week has been the decision to close the Condado de Alhama Golf Course for the winter.

Valencia town reintroduces the Peseta to boost sales in local shops.1.6 billion euros’ worth of pesetas must be exchanged by the end of the year before they become worthless

It is now almost 19 years since the euro came into circulation in Spain and most of the rest of the European Union, but with just two and a half months remaining before the Banco de España stops changing old money into the newer currency the peseta is making an unexpected and nostalgic comeback in the town of Paterna, just outside the city of Valencia in the Comunidad Valenciana (Region of Valencia which encompasses Alicante Province, Castellón Province and Valencia Province).

The cut-off date after which the Banco de España will no longer convert pesetas into euros is 31st December this year, but the bank estimates that somewhere there are still around 265 billion pesetas (with a value of 1,600 million euros!) which have not been exchanged. In this context the Multipaterna local business and services association has launched a campaign in which around a dozen local shops will accept pesetas as legal currency (at the established rate of 166.386 pesetas per euro) until the middle of December. Click to read

Immigration:

More than 1500 irregular immigrants have reached Spanish shores in the last week: The good weather and calm seas have prompted a surge in the numbers of irregular migrants attempting to enter Europe via the Spanish coastline in the last week, the Canary Islands in particular targeted by the small boats (pateras) used to cross from the African Continent into the Spanish peninsula.

Traffic across the weekend was particularly heavy, and by the end of Sunday more than 1500 irregular migrants had been detained by marine rescue services and the Guardia Civíl, nearly 220 of them having reached Murcia in a succession of 18 boats on Saturday and Sunday.

On Monday the arrivals continued in the Alicante province, with two further boats arriving in Benidorm and Altea.

Across Europe the number of illegal border detentions at Europe’s external borders fell by 21% in the first nine months of this year to around 72 500, largely because of a drop in arrivals in Eastern and Western Mediterranean countries caused by the coronavirus pandemic in the early months of the year, according to preliminary calculations by the Frontex border force.

Thank you for your support and have a good week!